Award-winning distillery relocates after struggling to find suitable home

The owner of a successful Sunshine Coast brewery and distillery has taken his business to the Gympie region after struggling to find suitable premises.

Dimitris Limnatitis has moved Diablo Co from land at the Big Pineapple, Woombye, to the old Cooloola Milk factory site at Dagun in the Mary Valley.

Diablo had been based at the Big Pineapple but Mr Limnatitis said a move had been necessary to grow and secure a long-term future for the business.

“We wanted to move out to grow our own sugar cane and do that sort of stuff. We’ve been looking for over a year,” he said.

He said it had been difficult to find a suitable location that the council approved of without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, although a Sunshine Coast Council spokesperson said Mr Limnatitis was supported in his quest for premises.

Mr Limnatitis said he looked at a rural property and another approved for use as winery but both involved spending thousands of dollars on reports to gain council permission.

He said the council labelled the business a “medium- to high-impact industry” and suggested he move into an industrial estate, but he said it would make no sense for Diablo Co to be “between a panelbeater’s and a concrete plant”.

Mr Limnatitis said he gave up on the Sunshine Coast after council officers visited his Big Pineapple location without notice and, after mistakenly identifying a neighbouring business as his, wrote to him that Diablo was bigger than he indicated.

“I said, ‘no, no, enough’s enough’,” he said.

“We’ve always proudly been a Sunshine Coast business from our humble beginnings on Ocean Street, where we made Queensland’s first alcoholic ginger beer, right through to setting up a distillery and production facility at the Big Pineapple.

“When our lease ran out we searched across the Coast and we actually did find a fantastic new location in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, which would have served our business and the local community brilliantly, but unfortunately council’s planning laws made it impossible to proceed.

“We now have an amazing 20-acre site with incredible facilities and infrastructure, and we also have enough land to grow our own sugar cane, ginger and other ingredients so our customers can be assured of the provenance of everything we produce. We are also self-sufficient in terms of power, water and waste as we have our own solar panels, a bore, numerous water tanks as well as a septic system.

“Gympie Council have been incredibly supportive and mayor Glen Hartwig has already reached out to us to provide whatever support we need. Our leadership team and our staff feel incredibly welcome and I am sure this will inspire us to replicate our success in Gympie.”

A Sunshine Coast Council spokesperson said the region was one of Australia’s leading destinations for microbreweries and distilleries.

They said the council’s economic development brand and team supported new businesses coming to the Coast, and local ones wishing to expand.

“Council has been working with the owner of Diablo over the past 15 months providing support with site selection and initial advice in relation to the suitability of business operations in consideration of the local planning scheme,” they said.

The spokesperson said all businesses were encouraged to make contact with the council for feedback on likely application and licensing requirements.

Mr Limnatis said difficulties finding a suitable location on the Sunshine Coast had worked in Diablo’s favour.

“Otherwise, I would not be on this beautiful property. I could not be more happy,” he said.

Diablo Co’s 3 Thirteen Pacific rum topped the points in the recent Australian Rum Awards.

Mr Limnatitis was proud of the result given it was the first year that Diablo’s rum had been old enough to enter.

“Our rum is only two years old and we were up against others that were eight, 10, 12 years old,” he said.

He said the move from the Sunshine Coast to Dagun would set Diablo Co in the right direction.

“The reason we’ve won this award is because of everything I came here to be able to do that I couldn’t do there,” he said.